Water

Many of my favorite things in life are heavily dependent on the quality of the water. Scotch, beer, tea, and swimming in lakes all come to mind. But hearth bread probably leads the list.

Our well produces a good-tasting water, once it’s passed through a whole-house filter that takes out most of the iron and then through a Brita that seems to do something good to it, too.

So we’re lucky. I don’t know what I’d use if we lived in town (Brunswick, Maine). The bouquet of the water Brunswickians get from their municipal water supply is redolent of The Decline of Western Civilization. With an impudent hint of Eau de Swimming Pool. And some lingering notes of “my God, what did I just drink?” I suppose I’d use Poland Spring bottled water.

The best bread I’ve ever made used water that came from a sand point driven into a dune about 300 feet from the Gulf of Maine. Great bread. But now that I think of it, it might have been the salt air, too.

Flour

Van Over recommends using bread flour. It has a higher protein content than all-purpose and so is able to develop more gluten. Higher rising and chewier. King Arthur Unbleached has been good to use, but I don’t know anything about other brands.Many bread books are concerned about how stored flour can absorb moisture and so change in weight, throwing off measurements. I have found, though, that buying King Arthur 5-pound bags (which are cheaper per pound at the new Whole Foods in Portland than the same flour in their bulk section) solves this issue.

I have been working on a 50% whole wheat version of this recipe, using King Arthur White Whole Wheat, but it’s not yet ready for prime time. Even with added gluten, it still is too heavy and not as chewy.

Recipe

Recipe Charles Van Over’s “Best Bread Ever”

bread flour: 500 g salt: 2 t instant yeast: 1 t water: 350 ml

1. Put flour, salt, yeast in processor bowl with the metal blade installed; take the temperature of the flour, subtract this number from 130° and adjust water temperature to result in 130° total.*
2. Turn on food processor. Drizzle in water slowly; when a ball, process 45 seconds.
3. Dough should be 75 – 80° — process 5 seconds more to raise temperature, if needed.
4. Ferment 1 1/2 – 2 hours in a gallon food bag at room temperature, then retard in fridge overnight, or up to 4 days.
5. 2 – 3 hours before baking remove the dough from fridge and make loaf. Proof at room temperature 2 hours (or long enough to raise dough temperature to 60 – 62°). Don’t worry if dough doesn’t rise much.
6. Preheat oven with baking stone to 475° for 30 minutes.
7. Slash the loaf and then bake at 475° for 15 minutes, reduce to 425° to finish, with steam every 5 minutes 3 times. If baking more than one loaf, rotate loaves 180° after 15 minutes. Bread is ready when the interior is between 205° – 210°. Cool on wire rack.

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* This is the official Van Over formula. I used to follow it scrupulously. But I use flour stored in the basement at about 60° and water that is at room temperature. This roughs out to 130° and I now haven’t measured flour, water, or dough temperature in years. But temperatures matter. The dough rises in temperature from the kneading which results in a dough temperature that sets up the yeast to handle the fermenting and retarding well. If the dough is too cool or warm at the beginning, you won’t get consistent results.